Family Oleaceæ
In winter there is little to attract us in ash trees beyond a certain bold strength of trunk and limb. There is no grace or delicacy whatever in the branches, the twigs are coarsely moulded, and the buds are thick and leathery. The popular prejudice existing against ash trees in summer, when the contrast of their light foliage and heavy trunks makes it less deserved, is fully warranted in winter; but if the ash is ugly, the wood of few trees is as generally useful, and its literary history dates back to the “Odyssey” and to the Eddas of Norse mythology.
The generic name, Fraxinus, comes from the Latin phraxis (separation), and probably alludes to the wood of the European species which splits easily. There are about fifteen different species in the United States, three of which are found commonly in New England. The green ash, which used to be considered a distinct species, is now thought to be a variety of the red ash.
All the ashes have opposite leaf-scars.
White or American Ash Fraxinus americana
A large tree with a straight trunk. Bark furrowed with irregular ridges, the hollows forming diamond shapes frequently. Buds smooth, thick and hard like leather, and a rusty brown color. Twigs smooth, without down. Leaf-scars opposite, and the stems are flattened at the nodes. Cross-shaped branching of the twigs against the sky.
AMERICAN ASH
Fraxinus americana
Page [36]
The white ash is a tree which we find frequently along roadsides and in the woods everywhere in New England. The characteristics which distinguish it from other trees in winter are the close diamond-shaped fissures of the bark, the rusty brown buds, and often the old clusters of paddle-shaped fruit hanging on the tree. On some ash trees black, berry-like excrescences are found hanging in dry clusters on the ends of the branches. These are not clusters of fruit, as might at first be supposed, but the diseased and undeveloped remains of the panicles of staminate flowers which have been injured by mites,—curious freaks resembling oak-apples and the outgrowths of other insect poisoned plants. Occasionally these berry-like clusters have been gathered as seeds, by mistake, instead of the true fruit, a mistake which does not seem remarkable when the fruit-like appearance of the clusters is considered.
The wood of the white ash is heavy, tough, and strong, and is much used for agricultural implements, tool handles and oars, for the interior finish of houses and in the construction of carriages. Emerson tells of an ash which was felled in Granville many years ago, the wood of which furnished three thousand rake stalks. The tree from which I took the following photograph, stands on a farm in Sterling, Massachusetts, and measures over fourteen feet in circumference, five feet from the ground. This trunk illustrates the massive strength which gives the ash its one æsthetic quality.
Red or Downy Ash Fraxinus pennsylvanica
This tree resembles the white ash, but is distinguished from it by the down on the recent shoots. It is a smaller tree than the white ash, more spreading in shape. The twigs are less coarse and branch more frequently, with less space between the buds,—shorter internodes,—on shoots of the same age. Buds inconspicuous, smaller and blacker than those of the white ash. Bark closely furrowed, like that of the white ash. Leaf-scars opposite.
The red ash is much less coarsely moulded than the white ash, and in its leafless season, particularly, the contrast between its branches and those of the white ash is plainly seen. The fissures in the bark of the red ash seem a little finer and nearer together than those of the white ash bark on trees of the same age. The soft down on the recent shoots remains through the winter; and this, with the finer twigs, which branch more frequently, and the smaller, darker buds, makes the tree easily distinguished from the white ash in winter,—more easily even than in summer.
The staminate flowers of the red ash are afflicted by mites in the same way as those of the white ash, producing unsightly clusters which hang on the tree all winter.
The wood is much less valuable than that of the white ash.
Black Ash Fraxinus nigra
A slender tree, 40 to 70 feet high. Trunk dark gray, often disfigured with knobs. The buds are black, and the young shoots greenish. Coarse twigs; opposite leaf-scars.
The black ash is distinguished from the white and red ashes by its darker buds and by having a less pinched, flattened appearance at the nodes on the stem. It grows throughout New England in swamps, in wet woods, and in moist, muddy ground near rivers. In the woods its trunk is found frequently without branches to a great height, and Emerson calls it the most slender deciduous tree to be found in the forest. It is sometimes seventy or eighty feet high, with a trunk scarcely a foot in diameter.
The wood of the black ash is heavy but not strong. It is used for fences, for the interior finish of houses, and, after being separated into thin strips, it is used in making baskets and the bottoms of chairs. Its sap was an old remedy for earache, obtained by holding a green branch before the fire.
The specific name, nigra, refers to the color of the buds.
European Ash Fraxinus excelsior
A large tree, with a lofty, spreading head and short, thick trunk. The bark is ash-colored when old, and dark gray when young. Very black buds distinguish it from the American species. Opposite leaf-scars.
The European ash is planted frequently along roadsides and in our parks and gardens. It is indigenous to Northern, Central, and Southern Europe. Its jet black buds distinguish it from other ash trees. In the chapter called “A Visit to an old Bachelor,” in Mrs. Gaskell’s “Cranford,” Mary Smith tells us how she was talking to Mr. Holbrook in the fields, and how he quoted poetry to himself and enjoyed the trees and clouds and glimpses of distant pastures, and how he suddenly turned sharp round and asked, “Now, what color are ash buds in March?”
“Is the man going mad? thought I. He is very like Don Quixote. ‘What color are they, I say?’ repeated he vehemently. ‘I am sure I don’t know, sir,’ said I, with the meekness of ignorance. ‘I knew you didn’t. No more did I—an old fool that I am!—till this young man comes and tells me. Black as ash buds in March. And I’ve lived all my life in the country; more shame for me not to know. Black: they are jet black, madam.”
The “young man” he refers to is Tennyson, and the quotation, “Black as ash buds in the front of March,” is a simile used in “The Gardener’s Daughter,” and it shows how acute Tennyson’s powers of observation were, and how true his descriptions of nature.
The buds of the ash open later in the spring than those of other trees, and the leaves unfold very slowly. Tennyson also noted this characteristic:—
“Why lingereth she to clothe her heart with love,
Delaying as the tender ash delays
To clothe herself, when all the woods are green?”
The rare fitness of this simile might pass unheeded if we did not study trees first and poetry afterwards.
In Europe ash seeds were used for medicine. They were called lingua avis by the old apothecaries, on account of a fancied resemblance to the tongues of birds; young ash seeds were also pickled and used in salads. Evelyn says the wood “is of all others the sweetest of our forest fuelling, and the fittest for ladies’ chambers.”
The horsechestnuts, the maples, and the ashes are the three genera of large trees which have opposite leaf-scars.
Chapter V
THE WALNUTS AND HICKORIES
1. Butternut. 2. Black Walnut. 3. Pignut Hickory. 4. Mockernut
Hickory. 5. Shagbark Hickory. 6. Bitternut Hickory.